Who’s Influencing You?

Burnouts, crispies, jocks, athletes, meat-heads, ballers, A-crowd, the “It” crowd, goths, brainiacs, nerds, geeks, and the list goes on. Labels like these all carry an image in our mind’s eye; some positive, others negative. It doesn’t seem so odd that almost all of those in these cliques seem a lot alike, does it? Why does it seem to be true for the Class of 2016, 2015, 2010, 2000, 1990, 1980, and on?? Through school, after HS, into college, and beyond. Some people continue on in the same vein. Others seem to make a leap to somewhere better. Fair? Unfair? Regardless, it happens.

“You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.”~Jim Rohn

“You’ll be the same in five years except for the books you read and the people you meet.”~Charlie “Tremendous” Jones

Every one of us has heard from our parents and grandparents; comments about who we hang with, like… “birds of a feather…” You know how that saying goes, LOL. Then we realize the “conventional” world speaks into our lives too – our friends, coworkers, TV, movies, news, cable news, social media, and on and on. It all speaks into our lives and has an effect; some good, some not so much.

Here was a fun trick. I took a look at the average income of those I spent the most time with. I was told that the odds were good that my income would be close to that number – it was! I have to admit, it freaked me out the first time I did that. What a wake-up call! What if you spent some time a bit more focused on those that are pursuing the kind of life you want? What if one of them knew somebody that had actually accomplished the things you & your group of like-minded success chasers were after?

What if we asked this accomplished person how they did it? What if you offered to buy them a cup of coffee in exchange for asking them a few questions? A chance to pick their brain so to speak. How do you get that person to pass on to you what they know?

“If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants.”~Sir Isaac Newton

Experience was once described as the father of wisdom and teacher of fools. Unfortunately, or fortunately, that last part applied to me once. The more of life that happens to you, the more you learn. Only fools do not learn after seeing other people’s mistakes and insist on repeating them. Have you ever heard that experience is the best teacher? Yeah, me too. Then my coach taught me that this saying is only part of the story. The best experience is someone else’s, especially if they had been coached themselves. You & I would have the benefit of their experience combined with the experience of their coach. There is no need to repeat the mistakes either of them made, in the same way they made them. You would have an advantage; a clearer view; a head start.

What if you had a guide with a map for the road ahead? Someone who already had the road blocks all mapped out and they already knew where all the “land mines” are? One of the members of TeamONE probably gave you the link that led to this post. I hope you’ve enjoyed it, but more importantly, they have access to the coach with the map… Might I suggest asking them about that? My coach often says “Life leaves clues”… My hope is that this post has shown you one of them.